Customer Reviews

H.M.S. Unseen

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I loved Robinson's two previous books, and liked that one... until page 200. Then the story grinds to a halt and proceeds at snail's pace to a very disappointing end. I read the second half of the book by skipping 9 pages out of 10 and didn't miss anything important. There are already too many bestselling authors (Cornwell, Clancy, Follet to cite a few) that are currently writing books way below the standards of their beginnings... I just hope that Robinson didn't join the lot. I guess I also just got sick of buckshot in Admiral Morgan's coffee and of his racist habit of calling muslims "towelheads"... also Robinson seems to have a love for series (sinking 11 Kilos in the previous opus and shooting three airliners in this one) that doesn't help with the predictability of his plots. A good editor could have (should have) taken care of that.

This is for the recording. The action in Patrick Robinson's "H.M.S. Unseen" moves at quite a pace. Robinson introduces techncial issues rapidly and efficiently to show how a submarine could shoot down airliners (including one with the Vice President of the United States). The motivation of Commnader Benjamin Adnam is understandable, but the author does not make a good case for Adnam's conversion into a distressed penitent ...attempting to make admends for all his crimes against humanity. The characterization of the American Admirals suffers in the recorded version. I listened to David McCallum (of "Man From Uncle" fame) on my daily drive. McCallum failed to convert his educated British accent into a reasonable facsimile of an American twang. Further, the author puts too many "F---this" and "holy sh--" and "Jesus H. Christ" into the admiral's dialogue. I found it offensive. American admirals have long since passed the stage of bumbling colonials, unable to make a coherent statement under stressful situations ---- especially admirals who are supposed to be giving daily briefings to the U.S. President. (By the way,"stewardess" is out and "flight attendant" is correct.) Finally, the ending is weak. It is difficult, based upon the characterization of Muslim Commander Adnam, to believe that he would end it all that way.

This book is the third in what I hope will be a long series. But you know, when I bought "Nimitz Class" because the concept almost intrigued me, after the first read, it almost wound up getting contributed to my church's book sale table. Speaking as a Tom Clancy fan, Robinson was an acquired taste. To compare him to Clancy is a mistake--Robinson concentrates heavily on ships, where Clancy only did one book which spent that much time on the water: "Red October". If you picture somebody who falls between him and Clive Cussler, you've got Patrick Robinson. Where he's like Clancy is that his characters are plain ole life-size, not Homeric like Cussler's Dirk Pitt. The only problem I see is that his American characters aren't always that convincing. In "Kilo Class", he had a Yank using a Brit vulgarism my countrymen would never do unless we were doing a Michael Caine impression. But don't let that stop you from buying this book--in the same way the Colonel does chicken well, Robinson does Navy well.

I would consider this novel the product of a lightweight author.

I found objectionable the continued reference to Muslims as "fucking towelheads" (author's profanity - not mine). I understand that America considers Iran and Iraq as enemy nations, but...

I also consider that this book contains too much profanity, especially by the US President and his NSA.

I also found the ending pretty pathetic. I had identified strongly with the hero (Eliat / Benjamin Adnam) and felt the way he was dealt with very poor form.

I also found that the author's political sentiments as expressed through the American characters, especially the NSA (Arnold Morgan), as regards the American press and public to be patronising and undemocratic.

The story and plot itself was pretty good and engrossing until the end where it petered out. Another disappointment was the lack of a few decent twists and upsets (this book does have Intelligence agents as its main characters and the lack of subterfuge is disappointing).

This book starts off brilliantly. Ben Adnam, the terrorist bad guy in PR's NIMITZ CLASS, is betrayed by his home country of Iraq when Saddam orders him assassinated. So he journeys to Iran, in a well-researched voyage. Zap forward to 2005 and Adname had infiltrated the Iranian Navy. With aid of the Russians, he purchases a surface-to-air missile system, and hijacks the British Royal Navy's most modern diesel sub, HMS Unseen. With this feasible capability, he knocks three high profile flights from the skies, including Concorde! As Adnam hides, weaves and ducks, and ends up in Scotland, it is up to Admiral Arnold Morgan, a foul-mouthedly entertaining character, to search him out! And the ending, and Adnam's evasions of the authorities in a journey across Scotland, Britain and Ireland is surprising. Action comes thick and fast, the locations are well-researched, particularly the UK scenes, having been to Scotland many times it was easy to relate to them. However, I have one criticism to make. Did we really need to know in exact detail what every character had to eat? Or what movie they loved? It did interfere with the fast narrative, but HMS Unseen still gets a five star rating for a great story(which could come true one day) and an entertaining set of characters. Well done Pat!

I've read most of Robinson's books. While this one starts well, and has good character development, Ben Adnams motives are suspect, as well as the ridiculous notion that the US would hire a terrorist that blew up 3 airplanes, and an aircraft carrier. Also, while it appears that his initial motive are due to his devotion to Islam, for him to turn away from that and decide that he can now work for the US "the satan" as Robinson calls him is absurd.

You think you understand the motives of the terrorist during the first 2/3 of the book, until near the end a former romantic interest gets involved, and Adnam now becomes interested in a woman while ignoring his Islamic beliefs. This starts the book on its downhill spiral of ridiculous plots twists, culminating with the ridiculous ending. and why would Adnam not tell the US that he was really working for Iran and not Iraq?

OTher reviewers of this book talked about how Robinson just came to a screeching halt to end the book... kindof like he needed to finish it. In fact, it appears to me that Robinson had a deadline to finish the book.

However, I did like some of his detail, especially the detail of his flight from a western island of Scotland to one of the main cities. While some readers may not care about the clothes he bought or what he ate, I find it adds realism to the book. Read one of Stuart Woods' novels and you see a writer who knows nothing of this kind of detail. It seems that in Woods' books, everyone is eating lobster salad, no matter where or what kind of restaurant they are in.

Robinson's plots are interesting, but his characters are mere caricatures of real people. Adm. Morgan is possibly one of the most grating characters in modern fiction.

Also, in the first half of the book, the narrator relates a rumor wherein the US president summons a magazine editor/publisher to the White House, and threatens him with a treason charge for investigating an indiscretion on the part of a U.S. military leader.

Reality check anyone? Let's just take a quick look at the Bill of Rights and decide whether any president would have the audacity to try this one. It seems as though Robinson is trying to live out some self-aggrandizing fantasy through the character of the president.

I don't know why anyone with an IQ above 43 would read this piece of junk masquerading as a real book. Tom Clancy nothing, this joker sounds like Dr. Seuss in comparison. I don't know what the two morons that wrote 5-star reviews were thinking, if they were thinking at all, but this book is one of the all-time worst excuses for fiction I have ever seen. I would love this book if I could remove 3/4 of my brain while reading it so as not to be in danger of retching violently at the plethora of gross absurdities found therein. I was assured that this book was excellent, but it took no more than the first 4 chapters to completely disabuse me of that notion. Inane, childish, moronic, dull, you name your adjective, it fits here. In summary, my opinion of this book can be summed up in one word (a highly technical term that is full of deep meaning): UGH.

First the good points:
- an exciting story involving high intrigue and the world's most wanted terrorist
- confrontation between the USA and England on one side and Iraq and Iran on the other side - how topical can you get?
- a techno-thriller about an undetectable submarine and lots of other modern military hardware

With all that going for it, H.M.S. Unseen should have been a great read. But what did we get? A book that makes the exciting moments (stealing the submarine, the shooting down of the Concorde, etc.) sound dull, and makes the in-between parts positively sleep-inducing.

On top of that, the ending is really poor. (Spoiler alert - don't read any more if you want to avoid learning how the book ends.)

The President of the United States decrees that the government of Iraq (i.e., Saddam Hussein) is to be punished. The President's national security advisor implements an attack which results in a major portion of Iraq becoming flooded. The national security advisor proudly reports to the President that Iraq's economy has been dealt a major blow from which it will take them 10 years to recover.

So it's apparently considered legitimate to cause major suffering to the entire population of a country just to "punish" the dictator at the top. In reality, Saddam is presumably totally unconcerned with his people's suffering and will probably find himself in a strengthened position, since he and his people now have proof that they have a common enemy with no moral scruples.

Of course, reality has now bypassed this portion of the book. So although the story is supposedly set in the near future, it must now be considered a total fiction which isn't even remotely possible.

Rennie Petersen

Patrick Robinson's first book, NIMITZ CLASS, was an exciting and page-turning read about an event that could all too easily happen in today's world. His second book, KILO CLASS, was equally engrossing with a good amount of suspense, though perhaps stretching reality a bit.

It was, therefore, with great expectation that I picked up H.M.S. UNSEEN. It has a great plot line: revenge on more than one front, a missing submarine, covert fitting with a top-flight anti-aircraft missle system, and airliners dropping out of the sky over the Atlantic. It's at that point, however, that the story turns into a mind-numbing decscription of nearly every meal consumed and the accompanying wine list. Finally, in the last few pages, the author gets back to the story line. But, by then you are so dulled by the lack of progress the ending is largely an afterthought and unsatisfying.

I was also distracted by the author's misidentification of some of the equipment in the book, such as referring to a KC-135 as a military version of a DC-10 (it should be 707 or 720). For someone writing "techno-thrillers", this is a research oversight.

I was quite disappointed with the book. I hope Robinson will get back to the type of story he exhibited success with in his first two books.

In short, skip this book and hope for the best with his next effort.